Like John Woo took a trip to the underbelly of New York.

Max Payne comes from the gritty minds of Rockstar, and the shoot 'em up masters responsible for Duke Nukem, 3D Realms, as well as Remedy, and is an quite an innovator in stylistic action games. It was the one that introduced Bullet Time into games, many times described as stealing or ripping off The Matrix. The developers of Max Payne knew that the gaming world was hungry for what they had seen in movies, and with no Matrix game in site, this game was a perfect solution. A couple years later, Enter the Matrix comes along and still doesn't hold it's own to the perfection set by Max Payne.

Storyline
The storyline of Max Payne, unfortunately, takes a back seat. It's actually quite good, and very entertaining, if not even scary at times. The story is carried out in the style of a graphic novel, very effective for the type of story it's telling. These are carried out with about 3-6 panels of comics, using photographs of the characters, and artistic rendering. The words and thoughts of these are read, Max being voiced by actor James McCaffrey. His gravely voice, paired with his metaphor-filled dialogue add to a very well-told story. The plot begins with Max and his wife, and recently born child, living perfectly in suburbia. One day, while Max is at his hard working day job as a cop, he comes home only to be greeted by a V with a syringe through it spray-painted on his wall. As it goes on, we find his wife and child have been brutally murdered by some drugged-out psychos. Max tries to find out what the cause of this is, and as things proceed, things go wrong. He eventually finds that the source is a drug called Valkyr, and is made by a high powered corporation that he works his way to through the dark and gritty streets to the source of the problem. Throughout the quest, Max becomes more and more jaded, forgetting about the blizzard engulfing New York, and his fellow cops now constantly on his tail. His main priority is now to find out who is responsible and why for the incident at the beginning, and simply revenge.

Graphics
While these are now outdated by the standards when I wrote this review, the graphics are still very good. Parts can seem a tad photorealistic, many times because the environments were partly scanned in. All of the characters faces are real, Max's being a member of the production team. The downside is that they can seem laughable, especially Max's stone-faced smirk. But nothing ever really has a cartoon feel, except maybe the graphic novel story pauses. The guns seem very real, as do the fire when shot, and the reloading seems very real. Several environments are destructable, and react quite realistically. Things really do come off as being very dark, gritty, and dingy. Lighting is perfect on this game, subtle effects are in full gear in this game. Cases are openable, vials can be shot, as can glass, some wood, televisions, radios, vending machines; all to be destroyed at your liking. When one goes into bullet time, the surroundings become a little whiter and blur as you jump. Nice. Also, there are a few levels where you are lost in a drugged-out dream, and the levels are much like bullet time, except green and stretched out. Very effective, and very creepy.

Sound
The sounds in this game fair pretty average. The main voices are very good, but the goons and gangsters sound like they're cartoon mob impressions. Not that there's anything wrong with that. There's not too much music to speak of, though there is a dark running theme throughout the game. As an easter egg, when you're in the mansion try playing the piano. Genuinely eerie song, but can get a tad repitious if you play for a long time on end. The gunshots sound very realistic, each one really seeming like you really fired it. The spoken script is well-performed by James McCaffrey, as well as a few other known people. Pretty decent here.

Gameplay
The place where this game shines. Gameplay scores mainly as any other arcade style shoot 'em up. It's easy to see that the people who made Duke Nukem were developers in this. Of course, the most striking feature of this game is Bullet Time. It is a button-activated feature that puts everything into slow-mo, giving you the advantage of 'Shoot-Dodging', or jumping sideways during this time to evade on-coming bullets. Sounds, enemies, and your motions slow during this time into what is now a common style, originally used by Hong Kong action director, John Woo. Many compare this to The Matrix's Bullet Time effects, but being that you aren't defying physics, and the camera isn't rotating like it does in The Matrix, it's most comparable to Woo pictures, and is not too subtle about saying so, seeing as John Woo and Chow-Yun Fat are mentioned a couple times through this game. Bullet Time is measured through a meter, next to health. Both are consumable, and refillable, measured using a meter that fills from the bottom up of a silhouette (either an hour glass, or Max's body). Health is regained through collecting pain killers (not Payne killers) from medicine cabinets and such throughout the city. They aren't too numerous, so use them wisely. Weapon ammo is found either from spare guns placed in the game, or from enemies you kill. Much of this game is spent in either two ways, shooting or running/searching through levels. This game could easily be called a first-person shooter in third person perspective. Some may find it repetitious, but I've not yet found one who didn't enjoy playing this simply for the sake of playing it.

Controls
The controls are the exact same as they would be with any other PC-to-console port of a first-person shooter. R1 is to fire your weapon, and L1 is to trigger Bullet Time mode. These actually work surprisingly well. Everything is very responsive, and works well without much thought needed. I have heard some complaints about first use of the analog, but if you're used to keyboard and mouse, it's not too far from the same thing. Even if you're new to this kind of control setting, it won't take you long to get used to it.

Difficulty/Length
Want to hear a dirty joke? This game is long and hard. But in all seriousness, this is one of the longest games action games I've ever played. Easily 8 hours or so on your very first play through. As long as you give yourself breaks in playing it, it most likely will not seem boring. Each new place really is a new place, and I've even found myself thinking about the levels outside of playing this game. It's by no means an easy game, either. But with some patience, it's not too hard, either. There are programmer's codes in this game, and could be very useful. One point if you use codes, though is it could become boring quicker, and after a lever or so, you will need to re-enter the codes. This happens at random after levels, but the codes are easy to remember and quick to enter. The game is divided into Parts, Chapters, then sections within the chapters. So if there's one part of the game giving you hell, as long as you get through it quickly, you most likely won't have far to go before you'll reach the end of it to save and move on. If you move through levels quickly, this can seem redundant, and from what I've heard, the PS2 version of this game takes a little longer to save, but it can serve as a good time to rest your nerves.

Content
This game is certainly not for the young ones. Swearing is present, blood is seen coming through the body (slowly), then on the walls. There is no use of the F-word, but most everything else is used at least once, though swearing is not nearly as frequent as in some games. This really does have adult themes, such as a satanic church, drug use and abuse, psychopaths, an implied sexual act, a 'by-the-hour' love hotel, some very graphic scenes of death. There were many times in this game where I was actually scared the way one is in Silent Hill (gradually and not by shocking). But if the player knows what they are seeing, go ahead. I'm not the 'correct' age for this, and I positively love it!

Max Payne will be a game unlike any other you'll ever play. It can be compared to Dead to Rights, Enter the Matrix, and now Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (which I fully recommend), but even the sequel is somewhat different from this in the feel. If you're good at this type of game, or are looking for a good overall game, I whole heartedly recommend this.